Nikki Giovanni Quotes

Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.

She knows who she is, because she knows who she isn't.

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.

The only way you can grow is to let yourself make mistakes and create contradictions. As we learn new things, some of our old attitudes will change.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We have a world to conquer...one person at a time...starting with ourselves.

I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.

We love because it's the only true adventure.

You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.

Once you know who you are, you don't have to worry anymore.

Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.

The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.

Mistakes are a fact of life. If you are willing to be wrong then you have earned the right to be right.

We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.

Now, everything I do, I do because I want to. And I believe the best is yet to come.

I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.

We are better than we think and not yet what we want to be.

If i can't have what i want . . . then my job is to want what i've got and be satisfied that at least there is something more to want

Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.

The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.

We need to make sure our children travel to see things. Not necessarily long distances but at least out of the neighborhood. On a train. A boat. An airplane.

the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by.

Daddy says the world is a drum tight and hard and I told him I'm gonna beat out my own rhythm.

I would put books on par with chocolate, because a good book is delicious.

go barefoot and be warm all the time not only when you go to bed and sleep

I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops.

VISIBILITY - You've got to find a way to make people know you're there

No one needs to teach you to be mean; we need to be taught to be kind.

The more you love someone the more he wants from you and the less you have to give since you've already given him your love.

A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.

Hip-hop is a cultural expression - it's embracing.

Who I really am keeps surprising me.

Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.

Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.

You do what you can with what you have. You have to work the edges whatever they are. The main thing is keeping your integrity.

Schools should be integrated by race and by class.

Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.

Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.

Follow your image as far as you can no matter how useless you think it is. Push yourself.

Violence is like money in the bank; it's only helpful if you don't have to use it.

Black love is black wealth

Everybody that loves freedom loves Harriet Tubman because she was determined not only to be free, but to make free as many people as she could.

Floating to shore...riding a low moon...on a slow cloud.

Life is a process where people mix and match, fall apart and come back together.

Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.

We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end.

If you were a pure bolt of fire-cutting the skies I'd touch you-risking my life-not because I'm brave or strong, but because I'm fascinated by what the outcome would be.

I am so hip even my errors are correct